THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

The National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It is headquartered inIndianapolis, Indiana.

In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently the term "Division I-AAA" was briefly added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all, but that term is no longer officially used by the NCAA. In 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

The NCAA has never sanctioned an official championship in the highest level of football, now known as Division I FBS. Instead, several outside bodies award their own titles; see below.

As of December 2011, UCLA, Stanford, and University of Southern California have the most NCAA championships; UCLA holds the most, winning a combined 107 team championships in men's and women's sports, with Stanford second, with 102, University of Southern California third with 94, Abilene Christian with 55, and then Oklahoma State with 50.

During the 2008-09 school year, the Pac-10 conference captured 11 NCAA titles, outperforming any other conference. It was followed by the ACC and Big Ten with five championships, and by the Big 12 and SEC conferences with four each.

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